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"The Scroll of Babylon."
The New Sentinels, Issue 1, "The Scroll of Babylon." The issue opens at the Sentinel City Library. There is a hostage situation, with an oafish mook with a shotgun demanding the staff and visitor stay on the floor. A bookcase has been moved aside behind him, which appears to be a secret stairway leading down into the basement. The mook calls down to 'Louey' and 'Jimmy', telling them to move as fast as possible, 'we need to get the scroll to the boss-man!' Zap Boy appears in a lightning flash before the mook, deciding to mock rather than fight him, whilst he charges with energy. The mook tries to shoot the hero, but the SHOTGUN shell is repelled by an electromagnetic field around the hero. The mook fires again, but Zap Boy teleports to the side of him, then zaps in front of him, and strikes the gun from his hand. Sighing, Zap Boy releases an electrical bolt, blasting the mook into a bookcase (with one of many cries of 'ZAPPPPPP BOYYYYYY!' from Jacqueline Worth, chief librarian). He then zips down into the basement. Jacqueline screams at him, reminding him that the priceless artefacts down below are highly flammable. Nearby, two jewel thieves (very much, cliche, old-school gangsters with black hats and trenchcoats) are in a car chase, pursued by the hero, Napalm. Napalm can fly, but is being outpaced by the vehicle ahead of him. The no-nonsense hero demands they stop, but receives mockery in response. The gangster who isn't driving then pulls out... a flamethrower. He blasts Napalm, but the heat based hero only laughs, powering up. The gangster laments that the 'boss man' gave them a flamethrower, and they got chased by Napalm, of all people. Napalm flame blasts his attacker, but only seems to mildly burn them. It doesn't take out the assailant, and doesn't stop the car speeding away. As Napalm pursues the thieves through the traffic, a civilian car is flipped into the air, as Napalm's eyes widen. Meanwhile, a large thug is trying to steal a handbag from an old lady. Flower Girl appears in the alleyway, trying to appeal to the man's hidden sense of goodness in order to return the bag, but he doesn't seem to have any. However, his attention is distracted from the old lady, allowing her to start walking away. Flower Girl delves into the man's memories, bringing forth memories of a lost childhood puppy he was fond of. Though she is able to get him to forget the old woman, he tries to stop Flower Girl messing with his mind and advances on her with his pocket knife. Zap boys encounters Jimmy, a young, teenager, and Louey, a big bruiser, down in the library basement where literary artefacts are kept. Jimmy is trying to cut his way into a glass case containing one of the SCROLLS OF BABYLON, and is getting very close to breaking through, whilst Louey berates him and tells him to hurry up. The skinny teenager clearly resents being bossed around. Louey reminds him that the 'boss-man' needs the Scroll. As Louey fires his gun, Zap Boy kicks the gun out of his hand as he fires. However, the stray shot hits some books, and starts a fire. Zap Boy then backwards cartwheels away from his assailant. Louey charges at Zap Boy. As Zap Boy easily dodges each strike, he zaps at Jimmy. Jimmy, remains conscious, but the case cracks. Zap Boy then speeds over to Jimmy's tools, says 'Oops!' and explodes them with a blast. However, the explosion destroys the scroll case, and the Scroll itself. The scroll explodes with a wave of green energy that engulfs Jimmy, and spreads the fire across the basement. (The fate of Louey is not shown.) Zap Boy teleports safely up to a balcony. Jimmy is glowing bright green, as a cylinder of energy radiates from him, up through the roof and into the sky. Jimmy states that he has never felt so much power, saying that he feels 'immortal', taking on The Immortal as his moniker. Napalm creates a platform of fire as the car is spinning round, and catches it as it lands on its wheels. As the children in the car (in Napalm t-shirts) wave and thank him, he carefully lowers the vehicle to the ground. Meanwhile, the crooks escape, cackling madly. Just as Napalm is considering going after them, he sees the cylinder of energy beaming into the car and hears the screams. He decides to let the crooks escape and flies for the library. Flying above the hole in the ceiling, he looks down and sees The Immortal and Zap Boy in the basement. Zap Boy doesn't exactly seem pleased to him, mocking Napalm, saying he is only going to make the fire situation worse. The two of them don't exactly seem to be entirely on friendly terms. Flower Girl repels the aggression intent in the blade, telekinetically tears the blade out of the mugger's hand, and holds it in mid-air. The old woman escapes whilst he is distracted. Flower Girl then replaces the image of the knife in the mugger's mind with that of his puppy, leaving him entranced, staring at it, as the knife hangs in mid-air. Once the mugger is reduced to happy tears, and Flower Girl sees the beam of energy in the sky, she runs off to help people in need. She exits an alleyway right outside the Sentinel City Science Symposium, where people are currently queuing to enter, and the old lady joins the queue. There is a poster for the Symposium, displaying adverts for the amazing Miracle Mineral, Ampligon, and a device being advertised for the workforce, capable of giving workers the strength of an ant! Meanwhile, the jewel thieves encounter something in front of the car, causing it to flip over. As one of the gangsters tries to escape the wreck, they see a pair of hooves approach the car... The customers have been evacuated from the library, but the staff are still present, when the Immortals rises up onto the main floor, as the basement fire rages below him, and Zap Boy teleports up to face him. At that moment, Flower Girl appears at the library entrance. The heroes try to get The Immortal to calm down, but he just laughs in mockery and informs them that he's had enough of being bossed around. He releases a blast at Zap Boy; the hero repeatedly teleports around Immortal to try and avoid the blast wave. Napalm tries to contain Immortal in a hemisphere of energy, whilst Flower Girl tries to use 'love ray' to overwhelm the opponent, but Immortal seems to overwhelm the energies with his own. Zap Boy calls for Flower Girl to get the civilians outside, whilst zaps energy at immortal. Flower Girl guides them all out like the Pied Piper, whilst Napalm surrounds the villain in a cage of fire. Immortal blasts his way through the fire cage, ignoring Zap Boy's blast, as he channels his energy into the floor between him and Zap Boy, as Zap Boy goes falling towards the raging fire. Zap Boy manages to grab onto a piece of broken floor, with his enhanced reflexes. Napalm concentrates on the fire below, starting to diminish it, drawing it into himself, whilst Flower Girl draws forth images of Immortal/Jimmy's mother, and what she would think of him. She speaks to him, telling him that it's okay to feel bullied, but violence is not the answer. Zap Boy flips through the air, charging up, as Napalm absorbs all of the fire into him. Immortal releases one last blast of energy, before Flower Girl causes him to power down, as Jimmy cries out and releases all the distress he feels. The energy wave heads for the civilians as they run down the street. Zap Boy teleports down the street, getting each civilian out of the way in time. Jimmy then collapses in a stupor. Whilst Zap Boy and Flower Girl are discussing what to do next and trying to calm a furious Chief Librarian, Napalm notices someone dragging Jimmy up the building. All the heroes hear some screaming from more civilians, in the opposite direction. Flower Girl runs for the screaming, whilst the other two heroes head into the sky. Flower Girl sees a car coming bouncing around the corner; removing the aggression propelling it, she holds it in mid-air, and runs on. Zap Boy teleports high into the sky, seeing some forms running across the top of the building. He also sees more civilians in danger and smoke from a wrecked street. He decides to head for the greater danger. Napalm, flying slower and gaining less height, notices a monkey with a fez on the back of a dog, carrying the unconscious Jimmy. The monkey has some kind of gauntlets, and draws an advanced gun. The dog has a cybernetic harness on its back, and a lens over its eye. The monkey fires a laser at Napalm. Napalm creates a shield to deflect the blast. It protects him from harm, but he is still hurled backwards. As he recovers his senses, he notes that the animals, with Jimmy, have escaped. Several children walking along a zebra crossing quake in fear as a truck rolls towards them. There is devastation across the street, cars gone through windows and walls. Zap Boy appears, jolting electricity through the truck, carrying it over then. And then he drops to his knees as his powers fade, and the truck hits the ground before him. He is knocked backwards, lying in pieces of rubble, as his hand slackens. Leaving Flower Girl alone as she sees the cause of the destruction stomp towards her... Sentinel City's main super hero... Jack Hammer!!?